Things Fall Apart
by Evilkitten3
Summary: One year ago, Ishgar triumphed in battle against the Alvarez Empire. Now, life in Fiore has finally begun to return to normal. However, the guilds are still mourning the fallen, and not all is well within the ranks. Meanwhile, someone believed to be dead struggles to escape a dire situation and frantically reaches out for help. (Darkfic. Warnings inside. Proceed with caution.)
1. Everything Covered in Fog

**Title** : Things Fall Apart

 **Summary** : One year ago, Ishgar triumphed in battle against the Alvarez Empire. Now, life in Fiore has finally begun to return to normal. However, the guilds are still mourning the fallen, and not all is well within the ranks. Meanwhile, someone believed to be dead struggles to escape a dire situation and frantically reaches out for help.

 **Main Characters** : Jellal Fernandes, OC, Angel/Sorano Agria, and Team Natsu

 **Pairings** : ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

 **Genre** : Angst/Friendship

 **Warnings** : Torture, non-con, character death, OCs, child abuse, etc. (basically anything my twisted mind comes up with)

 **AN** : So, here is the darkfic I spoke of on Tumblr. It is a DARKFIC, and thus not suitable for everyone. If you aren't comfortable reading it, please don't.

Chapter One: Everything Covered in Fog

 _"Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute." –Josh Billings_

Lucy Heartfilia opened her eyes, realized that she had fallen asleep (and subsequently drooled) on her writing, and groaned in annoyance. She stood up, stretched, and promptly tripped over a shoe. It was a pump, and definitely not hers. She sighed, walked over to the couch, and dropped it on the woman lying there. Brandish μ opened one eye lazily and frowned.

"Did you throw a shoe at me?" Lucy's green-haired friend asked. Lucy shrugged.

"Don't leave your shoes in the middle of the floor," she replied. Brandish sat up and looked at the shoe.

"Oh. Whoops." She mumbled. The former Spriggan yawned. "What time is it?"

"Four," Lucy told her. Brandish began to complain, but Lucy hadn't finished. "In the afternoon." Lucy sighed and placed her hands on her hips. "You should have woken me up," she scolded. "Sleeping at the desk is bad for my back." Brandish shrugged.

"I was going to," she said calmly. "Her Royal Highness said not to. Apparently, you were up all night." Lucy blinked in surprise.

"Sorano said that?" she asked. "Aw, she really does care."

"You don't seem surprised," Brandish observed.

"No, I knew she cared," Lucy said absently. She walked over to her desk and began organizing her work. "She's just not usually so obvious about it." After the war, Lucy's house had become a residence for two others – Brandish μ, former member of the Spriggan 12, and Sorano Agria of the independent guild Crime Sorcière. Brandish, who had effectively betrayed her country, had nowhere else to go, and was thus staying with Lucy until her house arrest was up. Sorano, on the other hand, had hurt her leg in the battle against Alvarez, and Lucy had offered her a place to stay until she healed. After some grumbling, the former Dark Mage had agreed.

"She's at Porlyusica's, by the way," Brandish told her. Lucy smiled.

"At least I don't have to force her to go anymore," she laughed slightly. Sorano was less than pleased by her mandatory bi-weekly trips to the grumpy, forest-dwelling doctor, and Lucy usually had to push her to go. Luckily, the threat of having to go every day instead seemed to be enough encouragement. "Still, has she been there this whole time? Her appointment's at one, and it's not usually more than an hour." Brandish stretched, groaning as she shook of the stiffness from the previous night.

"She probably stopped by your guild," the green-haired woman said. The door slammed open, and Lucy sighed again.

"Don't slam the door, Sorano," she called. The silver-haired woman limped into the room, scowling.

"Sorry," she mumbled, not sounding particularly sorry. She flopped down in the chair across from the couch, dropped her crutches on the floor, and sulked.

"It can't have been that bad," Lucy said, trying to avoid rolling her eyes.

"Oh no, the appointment was fine," Sorano grumbled. "I just spent the last two hours at your guild, trying to talk to _someone_."

"You shouldn't be pestering Mirajane," Lucy told her. Sorano threw her arms into the air.

"I wouldn't _have_ to 'pester' Mirajane if she would just answer my questions!" she snapped. "I had to wait until Titania and Gray got back from their job! At least Erza treats me like I'm there!" Lucy bit her lip.

"Sorano, Mira doesn't always know where CS is," she said softly. "I'm sure Erik and the others just don't want you to worry."

"Not telling me where they are is the problem!" Sorano growled, folding her arms. She stared at the floor. "My leg isn't going to be useless forever; they could at least keep me updated." Her shoulders fell. "I hate being useless."

"You're not useless," Lucy protested.

"She is, actually," Brandish stated. Lucy glared at her. "It's not your fault," she added. "You saved Lucy. Your leg will be better soon, and then you can join the search or something." Sorano snorted.

"There is no search," she spat bitterly. Brandish and Lucy glanced at one another.

"What do you mean?" Lucy asked cautiously. Sorano rolled her eyes.

"I'm not stupid," she said. "I know the others aren't looking for him. I know that the rest of you think he's dead." She shot the other two women an angry look. "And I know you've been lying to me." Lucy looked down.

"Sorano," she began quietly. "I'm sorry. But you really need to move on." Lucy knelt in front of Sorano and clasped the other woman's hands in her own. "I know you miss him – we _all_ do. But this isn't healthy. You need to accept that he's… gone."

"He's _not_ ," Sorano hissed, pulling her hands away. She snatched her crutches and stood up. "He's out there somewhere. I know it. And I know that the only reason my leg isn't healed yet is because you lot don't want me looking for him."

"That's only half true," Brandish said calmly. "We don't want you wasting your life searching for a corpse, sure, but your leg was also severely injured. According to Wendy, you almost lost it." Sorano just sneered at them, and stalked towards to door.

"I'm going for a walk," she muttered. She slammed the door behind her. Lucy stood up and stared at the ceiling.

"Why can't she just accept it?" she wondered aloud.

"She doesn't want to," Brandish said, lying back down. "She wants him to be alive, so she's forcing herself to believe that he is. I think she knows he's gone, deep down." Lucy chewed on her lip.

"Brandish," she began quietly. "Do you think–?"

"No, Lucy," the other woman interrupted. "I'm sorry." Lucy sat down in Sorano's now vacant chair. She looked exhausted.

"Please come home, Natsu," she murmured. "I could really use your help."

*Insert mildly amusing transition sequence here*

The company of ghosts was not one that Natsu Dragneel was particularly fond of, but at the very least he didn't have to worry about hurting them.

"Good afternoon, Natsu!" Mavis said cheerily, floating in front of him. Natsu opened his eyes and gave her a small grin.

"Hey, First," he greeted. He nodded to the darker spirit behind her. "Hey, bro."

"Natsu," Zeref replied. The ghost of his older brother sighed. "It's been over a year. Go home." Natsu rolled his eyes and stood up.

"I can't go home yet," he said quietly. He clenched his fist. "I'm not strong enough yet." Mavis folded her arms.

"Every day you spend away from the guild because of that is a slap in the face to the strength of your nakama," she scolded. "They're going to beat you senseless, and I for one won't blame them." Natsu frowned.

"I nearly killed Lucy," he protested. "I could've hurt the others too. I need to–"

"Natsu Dragneel, so help me god, I will kick you off this island!" Mavis yelled, puffing out her cheeks in the angriest sulking face Natsu had ever seen.

"Natsu, Mavis and I were talking," Zeref said. "We agreed that you can't stay here forever. This island isn't suitable for a human to live on."

"I'm not exactly human, though," Natsu grumbled.

"You _are_ ," Mavis said gently. "Where it counts. You have a good heart, and no one thinks you'd ever willingly hurt your friends. I understand your desire to be alone after all of this, but Fairy Tail is where you belong and you know it. As the First Guild Master of Fairy Tail, I order you to go home."

"What if I don't want to?" Natsu asked. Zeref sighed.

"Then I'm telling Mom," he said. Natsu stared at him for a moment, and then all three burst into laughter. A warm sensation filled Natsu's heart. He'd been on Tenrou Island for long enough. It was time to go home. Natsu stood up.

"You're right," he said finally. "I guess it's time to go." Zeref sighed in relief.

"Finally," he mumbled. Natsu threw a rock at his brother. Since said brother was a ghost, the rock flew straight through him.

"Start packing," Mavis advised. "You're taking a boat, by the way." Natsu groaned, flopping over at the thought of transportation.

"I think I'm gonna be sick," he moaned.

*Insert mildly amusing transition sequence here*

Trying to figure out exactly what was going on was too exhausting. A foot crashed into his ribs again, and he coughed drily, blood dribbling down his chin. A hand roughly tilted his chin up, and glazed-over blue eyes stared blankly at the face of his captor. A low chuckle echoed through the room, followed by words he couldn't quite make out (and didn't particularly want to), and an all too familiar knife traced the area around his left eye, just barely grazing the surface. Swallowing the lump in his throat took almost all of his energy, but he still managed to give a weak kick. The laughter returned, almost gleeful, and the knife buried itself in his upper right thigh.

His voice was too hoarse to scream any more, but he made a sound that would've been a scream if his throat hadn't been so dry. His face was wet from blood, tears, and probably a few other things. He no longer remembered where he was or how long he'd been there. He didn't remember who he was or who was hurting him or even why. If he focused hard enough, on a good day, he could vaguely make out the faces of people who had once meant the world to him. Now, the only thing that mattered was finding a way to end the pain. The world fell into a merciful black.

*Insert mildly amusing transition sequence here*

Millianna, Risley, and Beth watched Kagura very closely as the S-Class Mage made herself a cup of coffee. The coffee itself was by no means unusually, but Kagura seemed in a surprisingly good mood. Beth sighed, resting her chin on her hand.

"What's gotten into her?" the farm girl wondered. "I mean, I'm glad she's happier, but…" Risley nodded.

"I hear you," the chubby girl said. "She's been acting so chipper lately. Do you think she got a boyfriend or somethin'?" Millianna scowled.

"I doubt it," she muttered. The other two grinned and gave her knowing looks, causing the cat girl's cheeks to turn pink. "I mean, even if she _did_ , I don't think she'd stop being herself. Araña didn't."

"Leave me out of it!" Araña called from the opposite end of the guildhall where she was most likely talking to Fairy Tail's Droy on a communications lacrima. After the war, Minerva had done everyone a favor and helped the obese man lose weight. Araña had offered to help him with his diet, and the two had been going strong ever since.

"Still, she seems so happy," Risley mused. "It's like all her dreams came true or something." The mage in question snatched a job off of the request board.

"I'll be back in a couple days!" she called. The other girls watched her walk off. It almost seemed as if there was a spring in her step.

"This is just _weird_ ," Millianna stated.

*Insert mildly amusing transition sequence here*

Lucy walked into the Fairy Tail guildhall still rubbing the sleep out of her eyes with Brandish following behind her.

"Yo, Lucy!" Gray called, lifting a hand to greet her. The Ice Devil Slayer was sitting next to the guild's resident Rain Woman, Juvia Lockser, and the two appeared to be in the middle of a chat about something. Lucy grinned and went to sit across from them, Brandish hesitantly sliding in next to her.

"Good morning, Brandish-san," Juvia greeted cheerfully. The blue-haired mage had been one of the first members of the guild to accept the former Spriggan as a friend, and the two seemed to get along rather well.

"Hello, Juvia," Brandish replied. "Gray." Gray nodded at her, and then turned back to Lucy, looking concerned.

"Sorano was extra pissy today," he told her. Lucy sighed.

"Apparently, she found out about… that." She explained. Gray grimaced.

"Yikes. Bet that was a fun conversation." He gave her a half-hearted smile.

"You shoulda been there." Lucy smiled back. "She listens to you more than me, honestly." Gray shrugged.

"Can't explain that one," he admitted.

"Juvia thinks Sorano-san is lonely," Juvia said simply. Lucy nodded.

"I agree," she murmured. "But there's nothing I can really do about that."

"I can," Brandish stated. "When her guild comes back, I'll make them talk to her."

"Good luck with that," Erza said, walking over. "I just finished speaking with Richard. Crime Sorcière won't be back for a while." Gray groaned.

"What is it with all these Dark Guilds lately?" he wondered. "You'd think beating Zeref would be a bit more of a deterrent to breaking the law." Brandish shook her head.

"It's power play," she said simply. "They know that Ishgar lost a lot of strong mages, so they think there will be fewer people ready to fight them. Thus, they're busy competing for power. It's like a dick contest, only the winners get to be on top of the Dark Guild doggy pile."

"Tartaros is still the number one Dark Guild, though," Juvia pointed out. "We may have beaten them, so they're laying low for now, but they never disbanded. Juvia thinks they're gathering strength."

"That's what Sorano said," Lucy noted. "I guess the power play is more about who gets to fill up the spots Grimoire Heart and the Oración Seis left in the Balam Alliance than just being on top." Brandish shrugged.

"Not many Dark Guilds in Alvarez," she said. "Nobody was dumb enough to oppose the Emperor. Once word got out that he was dead, more started popping up. Now that Invel's pretty much taken over, though, he's been driving them out. Most of them are probably either in Ishgar already or heading that way."

"Crime Sorcière also has to handle Bosco," Erza reminded them. "They haven't even come close to getting things back to normal. It's absolute chaos there."

"Yeah, Lyon mentioned that," said Gray. "Apparently, he and some of the Quatro Cerberus guys were helping out over there for a few months. They ran into Mid– I mean, Macbeth." Juvia nodded.

"Merudy told Juvia that Crime Sorcière is the closest thing to an actual police force over there," the Water Mage added. "Things got easier after Merudy's friend ffrom Grimoire Heart decided to help out, but–"

"But he hasn't actually joined the guild," Erza finished. "Says he's not quite ready yet." She sat down next to Juvia. "It's fair, really."

"I can't imagine what it must feel like for people in Bosco," Gray mused. "I mean, imagine having wanted criminals as your only source of protection?" the other four shot him annoyed glares. "I'm just sayin'," he said defensively. "Sure, they're not _really_ criminals any more, but they haven't gotten an official pardon yet. Plus, Richard and Merudy are still the only ones I'd call sane."

"I don't think anyone in Fairy Tail has the right to judge people's sanity," Brandish said, examining her nails. "You're all completely off your rockers."

"You're not a whole lot better," Lucy nudged her friend, and Brandish hid a smile.

"I suppose not," she allowed. At that very moment, the main door to the guild swung open, and a thin, bloody figure stumbled into the building. Lucy jumped up.

"Flare!"

 **AN: And that's the first chapter! Ooh, this one is so much fun to write! What is Sorano struggling to accept? What did Natsu do? What happened during the final battle? Who's getting tortured? Who's doing the torturing? What's Kagura so happy about? What happened to Flare? What's CS up to? All those questions and more will be answered at some point! Maybe! If you're lucky! Ha. Anyhow, before anyone asks about pairings, I haven't decided what the final ships will be, nor do I intend to spend a lot of time focusing on it. The ships will write themselves, I'm sure, but I have other things to worry about. I can only promise lots of ship tease (and pairings that are officially canon, like AlBis, Rerry, Hibenny, etc.). But I'm super excited about this fic, so I hope you all enjoy it! Kitty out.**


	2. The Long Way Home

**AN: Hooray, lots of people (three) said they liked the first chapter! Apparently, I'm desperate enough to start writing after just that. Huh. Maybe it's 'cause I like this story even more than I liked Deicide. This is probably my favorite right now (though I think I've said that about most of my stories at some point). Anyway, only two people tried to answer the questions in the author's note last chapter. One person got it completely right, and the other got it wrong but still had some pretty interesting guesses. So! This chapter is going to introduce the first of my OCs, who are actually characters in the original series I'm working on, as are some of the other OCs showing up here. So, basically, most of the OCs are spoilers (ranging from tiny to huge) for a series that isn't out yet that you may or may not ever actually read. Feel free to ask me any questions about them (or the story in general), and I'll do my best to answer. Thanks for reading!**

Chapter Two: The Long Way Home

 _"If I win, I'm a prodigy. If I lose, I'm mad. That's the way history is written." –Artemis Fowl II_

The boat was just as awful as Natsu had anticipated. He would honestly rather be swimming, but the distance was too long, even for him. Still, he was seriously considering 'accidentally' setting the boat on fire. Only the fear of his brother's incessant nagging was keeping the boat un-scorched.

"You better be grateful," the Dragon Slayer moaned, clutching his stomach.

"I'm sure it would be," a new voice said, "if it weren't a boat." Natsu sat up straight, looking around. "Down here." He looked down. In the water, swimming calmly alongside the boat, was a girl about his age (or possibly a year older). She grinned at him.

"Are you swimming back to shore?" Natsu demanded, furious that she didn't have an older brother to nag her about that. She laughed, and held up a rope.

"No way," she told him, still grinning happily. "I'm hitching a ride on your boat. I went underwater so you wouldn't smell me, Dragon Breath. Besides, my little brother would nag me to death if I just swam back. Name's Nikolai Sutra. You're Natsu Dragneel, yeah?" He nodded. "Let's make a deal. I get you back to shore before your upchuck becomes best buds with the ocean, and your spar with me sometime. Sound fair?"

"Hell yeah!" Natsu cheered. "I'm all fired up!"

*Insert mildly amusing transition sequence here*

Jet groaned in annoyance. He had always been part of a team, and now it felt like his comrades had left him behind. Droy spent most of his time with Araña, and Levy was always off with Gajeel and Pantherlily (and sometimes Juvia, though less and less, since the Water Woman seemed to have unofficially joined Gray's team), so Jet was on his own most of the time. Well, actually, Levy had left that morning on a mission with Freed. It seemed that it had something to do with runes, and they had both been a bit short on cash, so the two had agreed to team up. This, of course, meant that Gajeel was going to spend the whole day complaining about pretty much everything until Pantherlily finally got sick of it and threatened to stab him.

With a sigh, Jet leaned back in his chair and wondered if today was a good day to take a break from work. Maybe he'd just go home…

*Insert mildly amusing transition sequence here*

After their defeat at the hands of Fairy Tail (along with the Twin Dragons and the Lady of Saber Tooth, Doranbolt of the Magic Council, several not-quite-dead dragons, and Silver Fullbuster of their own guild), Tartaros has moved underground. The ruins of the Cube that had once been their base now served as the roof of their new hideout.

Well, perhaps 'hideout' was too strong a word. It wasn't like people were unaware of their location – the only reason they hadn't been attacked was because they weren't currently doing anything, and Fiore had had bigger fish to fry. After the war had ended, the demons (who, for some reason, had continued to live even after Zeref's death) had begun to worry that they would be attacked, something they were certainly not prepared to deal with.

But Fairy Tail and the other guilds and the Magic Council didn't seem to see Tartaros as much of a threat, which was fair, seeing as they had beaten Zeref, albeit a tad insulting. So Jackal, Franmalth, Torafuzar, and Tempester (after Lamy had brought him back _again_ ) had begun cautiously rebuilding their lives. With Zeref gone, they had no reason to antagonize the humans, who were beneath them, and instead decided to try and figure out what their focus should be next. Luckily, humans seemed to stay away from the wreckage of the Dark Guild's old home, so that wasn't something they ever really bothered to concern themselves with.

That is, until now. Now, there was a young girl with bright orange hair pulled into three ponytails skipping around on the roof of their underground hideout. She couldn't have been much older than sixteen, but she didn't seem to have any intention of _going away_. Torafuzar sighed.

"I'll go scare her off," the shark-like demon grunted. One look at him generally sent most humans away screaming. He climbed up the ladder and out of the hatch to stand on the surface of what was once the Cube. Looking around for the girl, Torafuzar took a moment to stretch and remember what the sun felt like. Perhaps he'd been underground for too long. A giggle caused him to turn his head. The orange-haired girl was sitting atop a large rock (which had, like the other large rocks in the area, once been a part of the Cube) and looking down on him.

"Hey, there, mister," she said cheerfully. Torafuzar frowned. She didn't appear remotely frightened.

"Kid," he rumbled, lips parting to allow her to see his shark-like teeth, "why don't you scram?"

"I don't wanna~" she sang childishly. She grinned down at him, and Torafuzar saw that her teeth were, in a similar vein to his own, very sharp and pointy. Despite her strange teeth, the young girl was surprisingly enchanting – not in a physical sense, which Torafuzar wouldn't have noticed regardless, but she gave off an aura of calmness and serenity. She felt like a person one could trust. _Friend_ , the demon's instincts told him. _She is a friend_. But it was very strange, because her teeth didn't match her childlike innocence, and that sort of broke the image. Still, it was a fascinating thing to think about, and Torafuzar found himself entranced by the young girl's grinning mouth, filled with razor-sharp blades.

Fittingly enough, that mouth was the last thing he ever saw.

*Insert mildly amusing transition sequence here*

There was something very comforting about finding a village with no corpses in the street that hadn't been mostly burned to the ground. That in and of itself told Merudy that she'd been in Bosco for way too long.

"Most of the countryside seems untouched," Rustyrose mused. "I guess they didn't have very many guilds." Merudy nodded absently, watching the peaceful little village.

"It's so quiet here," she murmured. "So peaceful. Almost like the war never even happened."

"The metric fuckton of corpses we've had to deal with would like to contradict that," Sawyer grumbled, kicking a rock. "Let's just go meet up with the others." Merudy frowned at him.

"We have to check each area thoroughly," she reprimanded. "We need to make sure no crazy people are in power." Sawyer rolled his eyes.

"At least bandits usually have a decent system," he pointed out. "Unfair, but decent." Rustyrose smiled drily.

"We also need to dismantle the slave trade," he said calmly. "That's especially important to you, isn't it?" Sawyer shrugged.

"Yeah, I guess," he admitted. "Still, I don't like this place. It's too… quiet. No village is this quiet when their county just got destroyed by three guys."

"You've got a point," Merudy said, scanning the village. She sighed. "No time to waste, I suppose. Let's get to work."

*Insert mildly amusing transition sequence here*

Walking around the city of Magnolia was one of the only ways Sorano was able to get exercise, since her guild was off in Bosco doing god-knows-what. The sky was cloudy, and it looked like it was going to rain, but she honestly didn't care anymore. No one else was willing to believe that Jellal was still alive, but Sorano knew better – he _had_ to be, because he'd promised her. He'd promised her that her prayer would come true, that she would one day be able to fade into the sky like an angel.

And now he was gone – but gone did not mean dead, and Sorano honestly couldn't understand how the others failed to realize that. She truly believed that the former Guild Master (current, as far as she was concerned) of Crime Sorcière was alive, and she fully intended to find him once her leg healed.

"'Scuse me, miss," a male voice called out to her, and she turned to see a young man with tousled brown hair and a friendly grin. "Might you happen to be Sorano Agria?" Sorano's eyes narrowed.

"Yes, that's right," she said cautiously. "And you are?"

"Name's Lou," he replied. Sorano felt rather uncomfortable in his presence, almost as though he existed in an entirely separate plane of existence. And that was when she noticed that the rain had stopped – and so had everything else.

"What's going on?" she demanded. He laughed cheerfully, and two enormous white-feathered wings unfolded from behind him.

"Guess," he said simply. She stared.

"You're… an angel," she breathed, cheeks slightly flushed.

"That's right!" he gave her a thumbs up. "I'm sorry it took so long to get to you, by the way. But we processed all that obnoxious paperwork, so it looks like you're good to go." He held out his hand.

"What do you mean?" she asked, eyes wide.

"I mean, your friend's been pushing for us to give you a pair of wings," he said calmly. "You want to be an angel, right?"

*Insert mildly amusing transition sequence here*

Lying facedown and naked in a pool of his own blood was not exactly his favorite way to spend his time, but at the very least he could relax a little and organize his thoughts. Of course, the pain hadn't quite gone away, but it had receded now that no one was actively causing it. The wounds would heal on their own soon enough, he knew, and when that happened the agony would resume. He wished he could slow down his healing factor, but that was something he'd never had control over – one of many things, really.

Outside, he heard the sound of footsteps, and the door to his cell opened and then closed again. He could make out voices if he focused enough.

"He hasn't healed yet," a voice said firmly. "Leave him be for now."

"But sir," another voice protested. "Lady Caitlyn ordered me to–"

"I said no," the first voice snapped. "Tell Mother to take it up with me if she must, but he's had enough for the moment." The second voice gave an exasperated sigh and a murmur of assent, and then walked off. The door to the cell opened again, and the owner of the first voice walked in.

Jellal Fernandes let out a wet cough, a bit of blood dribbling out of his mouth, and rolled over to face the newcomer.

"Hey," he said weakly. The other man blinked in surprise and then laughed quietly, shaking his head.

"Hey yourself," he replied, sitting down next to the injured man. Carefully, he wrapped his arms around Jellal's bare chest and pulled him up to sit in his lap. Jellal let his eyes close. "You're done with that for today," the man holding him said quietly.

"Thanks," he rasped. "Try not to get blood on your clothes, though."

"You're such a worrywart," the other man told him, running a hand through the prisoner's hair. "Honestly, little brother, worry about yourself for once."

"There is not much point in worrying about me, Sieg-nii," Jellal told his brother, grinning. "I am hopeless, am I not?" Siegrain smiled sadly.

"You give up so quickly," he mused. "At least, when it comes to yourself. I wish you'd give up on this nonsense as well. This is such an unnecessary battle. I can't understand the point of it."

"I doubt you could ever understand," Jellal replied. "But I cannot allow myself to lose this fight." Siegrain shook his head, amused.

"You're very strange, little brother," he said, stroking the younger's face. "But no matter. We _will_ fix what they did to you – no matter how hard you fight it." With that, Siegrain leaned over and pressed his lips against Jellal's. He pulled back and smiled, but Jellal turned his head away.

"Disgusting," he whispered, screwing his eyes shut even tighter. Whether his brother was referring to the statement or the kiss was beyond Siegrain, but it didn't really matter. Siegrain kissed him again. "Stop." Jellal said quietly. A nauseous feeling began to rise in his stomach when he realized that Siegrain had cuffed his ankles to the floor. If fighting back hadn't been impossible before, it was now. "Please, Sieg-nii."

"I love you," Siegrain told him, kissing him a third time. "I love you. I love you, more than anything, and I swear I will take back everything they took from you." Jellal made a noise that was halfway between a laugh and a sob, and Siegrain pressed soft kisses all over his brother's face, and calmly cuffed his brother's wrists as well. It was a stretch, however, since Jellal's head was still in his lap.

"Don't," Jellal pleaded. "Sieg-nii, please stop." He knew that it was pointless to beg, though – the hardness pressing against the back of his head told him that much. A pair of headphones was slipped over his ears, and almost immediately the all-too-familiar whispering of a soft, calming, yet still firm voice that filled his ears and mind and blocked out everything else began.

 _I love this. This feels so good. More. I love this. Don't–_

"Stop!" Jellal half-screamed it this time, but Siegrain simply kissed him again, pressing a syringe against one of the veins in his arm. Jellal forced himself to make one last effort before the hallucinations of the serum kicked in. "Sieg-nii, Sieg-nii-sama, please no, please don't – Sieg, stop, _please_!"

*Insert mildly amusing transition sequence here*

"…And that's when Flare showed up," Lucy finished. "She passed out almost right away, and she was still sleeping when I left, but she should wake up soon. Maybe then she'll explain it to us." Lucy smiled, and held up an expensive bottle of wine. "I ran into Bacchus on my way over, " she added. "He asked me to give this to you." She opened the bottle and sniffed it, wrinkling her nose, before turning it over and watching the liquid stream into the soil. "Tell me if it's any good, okay?" A hand grabbed her wrist.

"You should have some too," a voice said. Lucy looked up.

"Gildarts," she said, surprised. It'd been a while since she'd seen him. He gave her a tired smile.

"Hey there," he murmured. "Am I disturbing you?" She shook her head and took a sip of the wine, before offering the bottle to him. He took a long drink, and then poured the rest of the bottle's contents into the dirt in front of them. "Have you been coming here everyday?" Lucy shook her head.

"No," she replied. "Not anymore, at least. I try to come at least once a week. What about you?" The S-Class Mage shook his head.

"First time in a while," he admitted. "Your friend woke up, by the way. She's waiting to talk to you." Lucy nodded and stood up. She smiled.

"Bye, Gildarts," she said quietly. "Bye, Cana." Lucy turned and walked back to the guild. Gildarts watched her go, and then looked down at the ground.

"Hey, honey," he said quietly, stroking the smooth stone in front of him. "Daddy's here. Sorry I took so long." A tear dripped down his face and into the soil.

*Insert mildly amusing transition sequence here*

HERE LIES CANA ALBERONA

BELOVED DAUGHTER, FRIEND, AND S-CLASS MAGE

AUGUST 9TH, X766 – DECEMBER 14TH, X792

WE WILL NEVER FORGET YOUR SACRIFICE

 **AN: And… yeah, I suck. So Cana's dead, Jellal and Siegrain have a very fucked-up relationship (pun totally intended, sorry), Jet is bored, Crime Sorcière is trying to put a country back together, Natsu has a new friend, Sorano's wish seems to be finally coming true, and Torafuzar was just eaten by a teenager. I warned you. I had a couple scenes written for this chapter (one of them being Flare's story), but they didn't really fit, so you guys are just gonna have to wait. For those of you wondering: yes, the person Sorano is missing is Jellal, and yes, Siegrain is about to rape his brother (you won't see that, just the aftermath). I never said this was a happy story.**


	3. Requiem For the Sleepless

**AN: A lot of people liked chapter two, it seems! Well, in the way that a fireman likes a burning house, anyhow. I'm enjoying writing this way too much, to be honest. I hope you guys like this story as much as I do!**

Chapter Three: Requiem For the Sleepless

 _"Mercy and compassion are virtues that only the strong are privileged to possess." –Claire Stanfield_

Life in the Alvarez Empire as an ambassador for the Kingdom of Fiore was not nearly as difficult or stressful as Lisanna had imagined. The people treated her with respect, and they actually seemed to appreciate having her around. The members of the Spriggan 12 were also surprisingly accommodating.

"Liiiiiisaaaaaannaaaaaa-chaaaaaaaaan~" Wahl Icht swung around the corner and landed directly in front of the white-haired girl. "Morning~!" Lisanna laughed.

"Good morning, Wahl-san," she said politely. "How are you today?" He grinned at her.

"Forget that," he replied, waving a hand distractedly. "Invel wants to know if you're eating breakfast with us today." The ambassador blinked.

"I hadn't planned on it," she said honestly. "But I don't actually have any plans, really, so I'd love to join you." Lisanna shrieked as she was grabbed from behind and lifted into the air.

"Make way for Lissy!" God Serena declared, placing her on his shoulders. "To the breakfast room!" He took off running, and Lisanna pumped her fists in the air, whooping.

"…The breakfast room is just the kitchen," Wahl pointed out. "We only use the banquet hall for really formal shit." The Dragon Slayer and the Fairy Tail mage were long gone by then, though.

*Insert mildly amusing transition sequence here*

Flare gave Lucy a weak smile as the blonde rushed into the room.

"Hey, Blondie," she said shakily. Lucy sat down next to her friend, concern etched across her features.

"What happened?" she asked.

"The Sun Village was attacked," Flare whispered, her voice cracking. "I… I couldn't do anything. I only just got away." The redhead's shoulders shook as tears streamed down her face. "I couldn't save anyone. I don't even know who it _was_." Lucy embraced her.

"Just rest," she said simply. Flare looked up at her. "I promise you, I'll find out what happened. Whoever hurt you and your family – they'll pay for it. I swear."

"The Rajinshuu will accompany you," Freed announced. Lucy nodded and gave him a grateful smile.

"Blondie," Flare grabbed Lucy's wrist. "Please– _please_ , be careful."

"I'll save the giants," Lucy promised. "I'll bring them back." Flare shook her head.

"They're _dead_ ," she wailed, throwing her arms around Lucy's waist and sobbing into the blonde's shirt. Lucy stared at her in shock and horror. "Everyone… every last one of the giants is gone!"

*Insert mildly amusing transition sequence here*

Nikolai was proving to be surprisingly good company on the journey back to Fairy Tail. Natsu wasn't entirely sure why she'd decided to tag along, but he appreciated her presence.

"This Lucy chick," Nikolai said. "She special to you or something?"

"Yeah," Natsu admitted. "She's… my best friend. This is the second time I've just left like that." Nikolai laughed.

"You're a pretty shitty friend," she commented cheerfully. "If it were me, I'd have tracked you down and gutted you like a frog~" Natsu gave her an amused look.

"Somehow, I don't doubt that," he told her. "What about you?" Nikolai gave him a funny look.

"What do you mean?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Best friend," Natsu clarified. "Do you have one of those?" She thought about it for a moment, and then shrugged.

"Yeah, I guess," she decided. "I usually hang with five other people. They're my best friends, probably. Dunno if Jaren counts, though."

"Jaren?" he asked. "Who's that?"

"He's the little brother I mentioned earlier," Nikolai explained. "Well, we're twins, actually, but I'm still older." Natsu thought about Lisanna, Mirajane, and Elfman and shook his head.

"Siblings can be friends," he stated. "They aren't always, but they can be." She gave him an amused look.

"Maybe. Most of the time, though, siblings fight." She looked up at the sky. "One of my friends, Hector, has some issues with his big bro. Like, majorly big issues."

"I know how that feels," Natsu grinned at her. She laughed.

"Oh yeah? What did your brother do, go crazy and try to take over the world?"

"No, he went crazy and tried to eradicate humanity."

"…Yikes."

*Insert mildly amusing transition sequence here*

Siegrain paced outside the door of his brother's cell, wringing his hands.

"He's still not talking to me," the young man worried. The two guards accompanying him exchanged awkward glances.

"With all due respect, Master Siegrain," one of them began slowly, "it's a waste of time to concern yourself with trash like that." Siegrain spun around, fury blazing in his eyes. He grabbed the guard by the throat and lifted him into the air with one hand.

"You do not speak of my brother like that," he snarled. The guard flailed and made choking sounds, and her partner lifted his hands to pacify the enraged man.

"She didn't mean it like that!" he protested. "She only meant that Lady Caitlyn declared that the Abomination was not to be treated like a human. After everything it caused… there's no telling what that creature will do if we don't teach it its place!"

"I know that!" Siegrain snapped, dropping the other guard. "But I _do_ believe he can be saved. I won't give up on him." He clenched his fists, scowling. "Fiore will pay for this." With that, he turned and strode from the room. The female guard massaged her aching neck, and the male guard shifted uncomfortably.

"Wanna go kick the Abomination around?" he asked. The woman gave him a startled look, and then smiled, relieved.

"Yes, that sounds like a good idea," she said, standing up straight. "For our Lady."

"For our Lady," the male guard echoed.

*Insert mildly amusing transition sequence here*

Walking into the Saber Tooth guildhall was not usually a particularly strenuous experience. Today, however, walking into the guild was like walking into your house only to discover that a couple of tigers had decided to have an impromptu wrestling match. Fights broke out all the time, of course, but they usually didn't last.

When Minerva opened the door to the guild and entered, she immediately stepped out and closed it again before walking right back in. She blinked, not exactly sure how to handle the sight in front of her. Sting – a common instigator and/or participant in various spars – had apparently ended up in an all-out screaming match with Yukino – who, to the best of Minerva's knowledge, never picked fights with anyone. Ever.

"What the hell is going on here?" Minerva demanded, forcefully separating the two with her magic. The guild went completely silent, then–

"Sting-sama is being completely ridiculous!" Yukino burst out.

"I have every right to be pissed!" Sting yelled back. Despite being suspended in midair, the two quickly returned to bickering. Minerva turned to Rufus.

"Explanation. Now." She demanded. Rufus shifted uncomfortably.

"Well…" he began slowly. "It would appear that, ah…"

"It's Rogue," Orga cut in. He looked very amusing by the whole situation.

"Rogue?" Minerva asked, confused. "What about him?" Were they fighting over him or something? That was rather out of character. Lector piped up next, snickering.

"Rogue's got a _girlfriend_ ~" he sang. Minerva choked, dropping Sting and Yukino, who immediately got back in one another's faces.

"He _what_?"

*Insert mildly amusing transition sequence here*

"Manami, you are _not_ bringing that thing in here," the small, dark-haired girl snapped. The taller, orange-haired girl pouted.

"But I haven't finished eating!" she whined. The smaller girl – who didn't look much older than ten, aside from her eyes – silently pointed towards the door, and the orange-haired girl sulkily dragged the half-eaten carcass back outside.

"Looks like one of Zeref's demons," the red-eyed man noted. He, like Manami, had orange hair (his was brighter and wild), but the two had no other physical similarities beyond that – at least, not above the waist. The lower half of the man's body did not appear to actually be present, making it look like the wall had simply decided to sprout a sentient torso. None of the other people in the room seemed bothered by this.

"It _was_ ," the small girl said. "Franmalth, I believe." There was an uncomfortable silence broken only by the gnawing and slurping from Manami's dinner.

"How many of them did she get?" the young man with reddish-brown hair asked.

"Just two," the young girl said. "Torafuzar and Franmalth."

"That leaves Jackal, Lamy, Tempester, and probably some random mooks," the young man said. Despite being the largest person in the room (he stood at just over 207 cm), he was the only one who was actually human. His hair was curly, and his fair skin was spattered with freckles.

"That shouldn't take too long," the man fused with the wall said, waving his hand flippantly. "You worry too much, Katsuya."

"I'd appreciate it if you'd be a little less informal," Katsuya replied, frowning. "We aren't friends." The other man opened his mouth to respond, but the small girl interrupted.

"The remaining Etherious are irrelevant," she said coolly. "We have received the necessary information." The man on the wall snorted in contempt.

"Would it kill you to get that stick out of your ass for five minutes, Mei?" he asked. The young girl's expression didn't change as she replied.

"I've no intentions of finding out," she said. "Also, shut up, Aesir."

"Yeah, shut up, Aesir," Manami snickered. Aesir scowled.

"Whatever," he sneered. "I've got things to do." With that, he melted away into the wall.

*Insert mildly amusing transition sequence here*

Jellal sighed as he heard his brother yell at the guards. Honestly, he preferred being treated like a monster to being treated like a sex doll, of course, but Siegrain wouldn't know better. Jellal mentally smacked himself. He knew he shouldn't try to excuse his brother's behavior, but it was so hard not to – this was how they had been raised to act.

As the sound of Siegrain storming off faded away, the other person in the room closed her book and looked up.

"Siegrain seems unhappy," she said softly. Her face showed no sign of what she was thinking.

"I'm not talking to him right now," Jellal told her calmly.

"Ah," she stood. "I assume this is because of his actions towards you earlier." It wasn't a question, so Jellal didn't bother responding. "This is unacceptable behavior. I gave Siegrain a chance because he believed that my methods were too harsh. I shall be taking your punishment into my own hands, I think." Jellal gave her a tired smile.

"I doubt he'll be thrilled to hear that," he noted. Caitlyn Fernandes smiled down at the man lying on the floor. There was not a single sign of affection in her eyes – just cold, piercing hatred.

"Yes, well, I'm afraid that that's not his decision," she said. "I do hope your stubbornness will soon cease." Jellal shook his head.

"I'm stronger than you realize," he whispered. Caitlyn laughed cruelly.

"Is that right?" she asked, looming over her youngest son's tired body. "Tell me, then – what is the name of your old guild?" Jellal opened his mouth to respond, but then stopped.

"I–" he began. A wrinkle of confusion crossed his face. "It's- it's…" he trailed off staring blankly into space. "My guild…" Caitlyn smirked and leaned down to whisper in Jellal's ear.

"You're fading," she purred happily. "You won't even last another week." With that, she strode from the room.

"You're wrong," Jellal rasped, watching her go. He squeezed his eyes shut. "My guild… I must remember… Crime Sorcière… _I cannot afford to forget_ …" The two guards Siegrain had been speaking with entered the room. Jellal didn't bother to look at them. _I must not forget_ …

 **AN: And chapter three is finished! Took long enough… anyhow, before people inevitably start asking about pairings, I should tell you something. Anything can happen in this story. One couple happening does not mean that another couple cannot happen later on. Things happen. People die. Stuff blows up. Whatever. Right now, the only pairings that are in this story are Droy/Araña and Siegrain/Jellal, the latter of which is very,** _ **very**_ **one-sided (thankfully). And yes, God Serena is alive. The rest of the Spriggans (the living ones, at least) will show up at some point too, probably. Anyhow, hopefully, I'll be able to get started on chapter four before too long, and there won't be another wait like this one. No promises, though. Kitten out!**


	4. Burning Rain

**AN: So before I begin this chapter, I should probably mention that this story deviates from canon about halfway through chapter 499. Anything that happens after that in the actual manga is not guaranteed to show up here. Also, the OCs** ** _will_** **play a large part in the story, although some are going to have a bigger role than others. Since they're from another world, their magic will be explained in time. Oh, and… maybe you guys should reread chapter two. Jet might turn out to be more important than you think. After all, there's no other reason for there to be an entire segment dedicated to him, right?**

 **FYI: This chapter contains demonic racism. :/**

Chapter Four: Burning Rain

 _"The human heart is a line, whereas my own is a circle, and I have the endless ability to be in the right place at the right time. The consequence of this is that I'm always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both." –Death_

Kagura Mikazuchi's eyes shone brightly as she exited the guildhall, oblivious to the curious eyes following her. It was strange, her comrades thought, to see the usually stoic girl looking so excited – stranger still to see a small spring in her step as she walked.

For the past seven months, Kagura had, unfailingly, left the guild once a week to head to an undisclosed location for a reason that no one in Mermaid Heel had been able to figure out. Most people were placing their money on a new boyfriend (or, in some cases, a new _girl_ friend), and Kagura wasn't the type to do anything rash, so no one bothered interrupting her business. She was loyal to the guild and she did her job; that was what mattered.

Stepping into a small clearing about three miles away from the town that Mermaid Heel called home, Kagura saw the face of the girl she'd spent the last few months bonding with.

Kagura Togami turned to face her, dipping her head in acknowledgment.

"Natsu Dragneel," she said bluntly, forgoing any sort of polite greeting. Kagura blinked.

"Sorry?" she asked. Her meetings with Togami usually followed a fairly basic routine – meet up, say hello, stretch, spar, and then do some sort of activity (usually, it was Kagura showing Togami how to do something or explaining something to her, but every now and then the older girl would have located a monster of some sort that was causing villagers problems, and the two would deal with it). Skipping any part of their routine rarely ever happened, much less the first four steps. Then again, anything involving Fairy Tail's AWOL Dragon Slayer was probably important.

"Natsu Dragneel," Togami repeated, getting to her feet. "We must find him. I had not expected this to be necessary so soon, but circumstances have changed. I assume you know of Sorano Agria's disappearance?" Kagura nodded – Yukino had been visiting Mermaid Heel when Sting had called with the news. "I believe Natsu Dragneel's presence is needed. Or," she scowled, "someone I know believes so."

"Any idea where he is?" Kagura asked, a little surprised by her friend's sudden display of aggression. The older girl was very good at hiding her thoughts, and Kagura had become used to her unwavering expression (which, in fairness, could potentially be attributed to the large scar running down the left side of Togami's face). The dark-skinned girl shook her head.

"Not exactly," she admitted. "But he is travelling with someone who is rarely difficult to find."

"Why did you wait until now to mention this, then?" Kagura questioned, trying not to sound too judgmental. She trusted her friend, but Natsu had been missing for quite some time.

"From what I was told, he was in need of some time to himself," Togami explained. "And, since the situation has only recently become ugly enough for his presence to potentially be a necessity, I deduced that leaving him in peace was for the best." She paused for a moment. "That, and my associate only made contact with him a few days ago, so I had no way of finding him before." Kagura nodded.

"Let's get going, then," she said assertively. Togami grabbed her risk, and Kagura looked down to meet the shorter girl's bright green eyes.

"There is somewhere else we must go first," she said quietly. "Unfortunately, whoever was responsible for the disappearance of Sorano Agria is not our only threat at present. There are forces at work here that should not be, and we need to find out who or _what_ we are dealing with."

"How bad is it?" Kagura asked. Togami hesitated, and then looked over her shoulder.

"There is no better time than the present to make yourself known," she called calmly. There was silence, and then a figure stepped out from behind the trees. He was of average height and build, with chin-length hair that covered one of his eyes. He had odd, doglike ears and a tail, but what caught Kagura's attention was the mark on his shoulder.

"Tartaros!" she snarled, hand flying to the handle of her sword.

"Indeed," Togami nodded. "However, he will do you no harm. This is Jackal, one of the Nine Demon Gates of Hell." Her eyes flicked towards the Etherious and then returned to meet Kagura's. "He is also the last surviving member of his guild."

"Tartaros had multiple survivors," Kagura growled, glowering at Jackel.

"'Had' is the operative word," the demon said. Despite his bored expression, he was quite clearly very tense. "Looks like we have a common enemy."

"I do admit that allowing him to live is not to my liking," Togami said, "but he could prove useful in the future, even if he is a filthy manmade _Etherious_." The contempt in the dark-skinned girl's voice was blatant.

"'Manmade'?" Kagura echoed, a bit lost. Jackal snorted.

" _Her_ kind don't like us," he sneered. "Zeref made us, so apparently we don't count as 'real' demons." Togami's lip curled.

"You _aren't_ ," she spat. "We wouldn't have a problem with the Etherious if you didn't call yourselves demons, because _true_ demons do not–"

"Wait," Kagura interrupted. "You're a demon?" Togami blinked.

"Yes," she replied. "You didn't know?"

"Humans are idiots," Jackal scoffed. Togami glared at him.

"Need I remind you that you live only because a human saved you?" she said coolly. "And that human happens to be a friend of mine, as is this one." Jackal rolled his eyes, but kept quiet. Togami turned back to Kagura. "I understand that this might be uncomfortable, but this is just how things are right now. If he refuses to stay in line, I fully intend to kill him, so you needn't worry." Kagura decided that it was best to just accept things as they were. Togami was a good friend, and Kagura knew she could gauge her own strength, so if she said she could handle the Etherious, it was probably best to believe her. Still…

"I'm keeping my eyes on you," she warned him. Jackal just grunted. He seemed to be unsure whether he wanted to roll his eyes again or simply continue to glower. "Where are we going, though?" Kagura asked.

"We are going to locate another member of Fairy Tail," Togami stated, swinging her small bag across her shoulder. "I believe she and her comrades are walking into a trap. Her name is Lucy Heartfilia."

Jackal choked.

*Insert mildly amusing transition sequence here*

The Sun Village was a beautiful place, especially when not covered in ice, but even the most beautiful location in the world would look ugly when covered in a metric fuckton of bodies (actually, since they were _giants'_ bodies, it was probably several metric fucktons). Lucy took one look at the desolate village and promptly vomited into a nearby bush. Bickslow gave her an awkward pat on the back.

"I am going to find whoever did this," Lucy hissed venomously, wiping bile away from her mouth. "And they are going to regret it."

"Their deaths will be avenged," Freed said solemnly.

"We can take care of the investigating," Evergreen offered. "It's okay if you want to sit this one out." Lucy shook her head, eyes flashing with fury and determination.

"I'm helping," she said simply. She straightened, surveying her surroundings. "It's not safe to go alone, obviously, but we'll cover more ground if we split up."

"Ever and I will search the eastern half of the village," Bickslow suggested. "You and Freed can cover the other half." Lucy nodded, glancing at Freed, who gave her a tight-lipped smile.

"We'll get to the bottom of this," she declared. "Let's roll."

*Insert mildly amusing transition sequence here*

"So who are we meeting again?" Natsu asked for what must've been the eighth time in the last twenty minutes. Nikolai glowered at him.

"I told you already – _I don't know_. Someone I know is coming, and they're bringing someone you know with them, and that's all they bothered to tell me." She scowled, kicking a rock out of her way. "Knowing my luck, it's the midget." Natsu blinked. _The midget_?

"Levy?" he asked. Nikolai stared at him.

"I don't know who the fuck that is," she said bluntly. Probably not Levy, Natsu decided. Nikolai returned to making small butterflies out of fire and then finger-gunning them down with fiery bullets.

"How are you doing that?" he asked, after a moment. Natsu was fairly good with fire, but he'd never heard of a spell called 'make fire butterflies and then shoot them' before. "What spell is that?"

"Not a spell," Nikolai grunted. "My magic's different from yours, remember?"

"You mentioned it once," Natsu pointed out. "And you never went into detail."

"I don't know all that much about how magic works in this world," the redhead admitted. "From what I can tell, my magic's a lot more versatile, but you seem to have more destructive force. Fire doesn't work on me either, but I can't eat it like you can."

"I can't eat my own fire," Natsu told her. She snorted.

"Well, that's pretty obvious," she scoffed. "Even if I _could_ eat fire, eating mine would be… well, not impossible, but sorta like eating your boogers, I guess. It's not going anywhere or changing anything; 's just gross." She held up her hand, and Natsu watched, fascinated, as flesh became flame. "My magic's pretty unique back home too, though. I've got what we call an 'Anima Magica', which means 'soul magic'. Some people call it 'inborn magic', but that ain't entirely accurate."

"Sounds complicated," Natsu noted, watching the flames that had previous been fingers flicker and then return to their previous state as part of Nikolai's hand.

"You don't know the half of it," she muttered. "There's all this shit about 'attributes', which I don't have to worry about, but it gets complicated as hell. Some people have one attribute, some people end up with two, demons can get up to _three_ –"

"Demons?" Natsu interrupted, looking startled. Nikolai glanced at him.

"Yeah, y'know – scaly, horned assholes; generally like to say they come from 'the bowels of hell itself'?" she said. "I hear you got some 'round here too, but I dunno if it's the same. Anyway, they're not all bad. Some of are, obviously, but most of them aren't the 'toy with humans for shits and giggles' type, so I don't mind 'em." Natsu nodded.

"The demons here are…" he trailed off, remembering Galuna Island. "Yeah, there are some pretty cool ones, actually. So, what exactly is an attribute?"

"Basically, it's what you're good at or some shit," Nikolai explained. "Anyone with an Anima Magica has a fairly obvious attribute – mine being Fire – but sometimes it's more complicated. You gotta factor in how much power you have too, though. Me, my Fire attribute is pretty goddamn strong, so I can't cast more than a super basic Water spell. That's usually how it is with Anima Magica users, really. I know a girl whose attribute is 'Mind', but I've seen her use 'Body' spells, so it's not all that strong. There's a diagram," she added, crouching in the dirt. Natsu watched as she drew what looked like a plus sign in the dirt. "You got the four basic elements – Water, Fire, Earth, and Air. Those are the most common attributes." She made two more lines through the plus sign, causing it to look more like an asterisk. "Then you got four more elements; the 'in-betweeners', you could say. Lightning between Air and Fire, Lava between Fire and Earth, Metal between Earth and Water, and Ice between Water and Air. Water users are shit at Fire spells, Earth users are shit at Air spells, Ice users are shit at Lava spells, and so on and so forth."

"Why is 'Metal' between 'Earth' and ' _Water_ '?" Natsu asked. Nikolai shrugged.

"Hell if I know," she replied. "Anyway, you got Light and Dark, and Body and Mind too. 'Light' is between Fire and Lightning, 'Dark' is between Water and Metal, 'Body' is between Earth and Metal, and 'Mind' is between Air and Light. You've also got 'Restoration' between Ice and Water, and 'Destruction' between Fire and Lava. And then it gets weird."

"This isn't already weird?" Natsu asked, raising an eyebrow. The diagram now looked less like a plus sign and more like a two-dimensional sea urchin. Nikolai snickered.

"Fair," she said, adding another line. "This bit's confusing, though. See, you got 'Sound' between Air and Ice, and across from that you got 'Chaos' between Earth and Lava. Why the hell 'Sound' and 'Chaos' are opposites is anyone's guess, but I've never a Chaos user using Sound magic or vice versa. Can you spot the really confusing bit?"

"Well…" Natsu looked at the diagram closely. "Hang on, how would you know if you've got two attributes, then? The ones furthest from your attribute are the hardest to use, right? So how would someone who's good at Light, Fire, _and_ Lightning know whether they had two attributes or not?" Nikolai grinned at him.

"Wasn't sure you'd catch that," she admitted. "Anyhow, humans almost never have two attributes, so it's not too hard to figure out. On top of that, the stronger your attribute is, the more limited you are. I can cast some fairly strong Light and Destruction spells, but the most I can do with Lightning is _this_." She held up her hand, and Natsu saw a couple sparks of electricity. Nikolai scowled. "Can't cast Lava worth shit, though."

"Isn't Lava just as close as Lightning?" Natsu asked, curious. Nikolai shrugged.

"Yeah, well, magic is weird," she replied. "My brother's got a Water attribute, and he knows a few Restoration spells, but can't do shit with Dark magic. Go figure. Of course, Magical Theory was never my strong suit. Doesn't matter either, since they might have to edit it soon."

"Edit it?" Natsu echoed. "They have to edit the magic?" Nikolai sniggered.

"Nah," she said, rolling her shoulders back and looking up at the sky. "Not the magic itself, anyway. See, everyone thought all this shit was set in stone. Everyone's got an attribute; everyone's got their strengths and weaknesses, and shit like that. And then this bitch comes along with way too much magical power and whaddya know, she doesn't have an attribute."

"How do they know she doesn't have an attribute?" Natsu asked. "Maybe she's got two." Nikolai shook her head.

"Nope," she said, making a popping sound on the 'p'. "Humans _can_ have two attributes, but it's really rare. I only know one person who's got two, and she's one of the ten strongest magic users in the world. Also happens to be a queen. Anyhow, she can't cast anything on the opposite side of the Magic Spectrum. Mai, on the other hand – I've seen her cast pretty much everything 'cept Restoration."

"So maybe her attribute is Destruction," Natsu suggested. Nikolai sighed.

"It's been suggested," she admitted. "But honestly, Restoration magic takes a lot of control. The more magical power you have, the less control. I'm sure she could theoretically use Restoration magic, but it'd probably do more harm than good. Girl's useless for pretty much everything but combat when it comes to magic."

"That doesn't sound too bad," Natsu pointed out. "Fighting is fun."

"Yeah, but things are a bit different back home. If the only thing you know how to do is wreck shit, you're looking at a military career. Or you could be a mercenary, or some sorta thief, I guess, but it ain't fun either way." Nikolai grinned. "Knowing her, though, she'll figure something out. Just keep your fingers crossed that she ain't our contact." Natsu frowned.

"You don't like her?" he asked Nikolai shrugged.

"She's. Y'know. She's all right, I guess." The redhead sighed. "Things just tend to get kinda ugly when she's involved. It's not her fault, though. Anyway, enough about me; tell me more 'bout these friends you ran away from."

*Insert mildly amusing transition sequence here*

"So Lucy and the Raijinshū went out to the Sun Village," Mira finished. Erza nodded, face grave. She turned back to Jet.

"And you're certain of what you saw?" she asked in a low voice. Jet nodded. He was chewing on his lip frantically. Erza swore.

"If only I'd come back to the guild sooner," Jet mumbled. "Then none of this would–"

"It's not your fault," Laxus interrupted. "I'll go after them." Kinana tentatively put a hand on his shoulder. He looked down at her.

"It's better if you're here," she reminded him gently. Laxus clenched his fists and glared at the ground. She was right, and he knew it.

"I'll go," Elfman and Gajeel said together. Mira nodded at them.

"Hurry," she said grimly. "There may not be much time."

*Insert mildly amusing transition sequence here*

"Carla, could you get me a roll of bandages?" Wendy called from across the room. The Exceed – currently in human form – snatched up the nearest roll and flew over to her friend. "Thanks." The blue-haired girl passed the roll to the blonde woman across from her. "You know how to change bandages by now, I hope." Dimaria Yesta nodded uncomfortably. She was working in the hospitals as part of the peace treaty Alvarez had formed with Fiore, but the past six months had not exactly been easy. Wendy herself was too busy to be anything more than occasionally suspicious, but other people in the hospitals were less than thrilled with her presence. Porlyusica had assured her that it was just tensions running high after the war, but she could still feel dark glares pressing into her back fairly often. Carla the Exceed was a frequent offender in this particular area, but the little white cat was mostly just passive aggressive.

"I think I've got the hang of it," she replied. Wendy nodded, and walked off to attend another patient. Dimaria was a warrior, and one who rarely ever got injured on the battlefield, but she was picking things up quickly enough. Wendy's pink-haired friend, Sherria, had been surprisingly eager to help her, although Dimaria suspected the former God Slayer was trying to make her feeling guilty.

"Don't forget the poultice," the man she was tending to reminded gently. He was her most frequent patient, due to being one of the few who was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. Wendy had assigned her to the patients whose injuries weren't too severe, but most of them were rather elderly (likely because they were more aware that there were people who needed more experienced healers than they did). She gave him what she hoped was a reassuring smile.

"Your break's in half-an-hour," a passing nurse told her shortly. Dimaria nodded, making sure to focus on bandaging the man's injured leg. She had just finished carefully tying the bandage when she felt _it_.

The stool she'd been sitting on fell over as she stood up, darting over to the nearest window.

"Dimaria-san?" Wendy asked. Dimaria didn't have to turn around to know the young girl was giving her a look filled with equal parts skepticism and curiosity.

"Oh no…" Dimaria breathed. She flung the window open and looked out at the sky. The air was practically crackling with magic. Her eyes narrowed, but widened once she realized what was about to happen. Turning around, she snatched Wendy and leapt out the window, Carla and Sherria shouting in surprise behind them.

The blast of magic hit the area they'd been in not a second before, and Dimaria had barely gotten to her feet when another blast came at her.

"What's going on?" Sherria cried from the hospital window.

"We're under attack," Dimaria growled. She looked at Wendy. "Stay behind me, kid, it looks like they're after you."

"Who?" Wendy spluttered. " _Why_?" Dimaria grabbed her blade and deflected a third blast.

"Why would I know," she hissed. She did, admittedly, have a very good idea of who was behind the attack, but she couldn't be certain who – or _what_ – exactly was attacking. Whatever the hell was attacking them, it wasn't human. This was pure, undiluted magic. Any human foolish enough to meddle with the essence of magic wouldn't live long enough to regret it. "Whatever you do, don't let it touch you!" she bellowed. The blasts began to increase in frequency, and Dimaria had no way of knowing whether Wendy was heeding her advice.

"Colos Magica: Caesius Obstruo!" a voice cried. The cement beneath Dimaria's feet shook, and the woman leapt back as an enormous barrier shot from the ground. She turned around to see a rather heavy girl standing there, hands outstretched. She appeared to have been running, as she was clearly out of breath.

"Rainbow," was the first thing that came to Dimaria's mind (and, unfortunately, out of her mouth). To be fair, the girl had dyed her hair in several different colors. It hung loosely down save one lock of gray, which was slowly floating down to join the rest of the dead tissue but had quite clearly been doing its own thing moments ago. The newcomer gave her an odd look, and Dimaria shook her head to clear her thoughts. "I appreciate your help," she said shortly. "But I don't think whatever the hell this is has finished." There was a whirring sound, and Dimaria deflected yet another blast with her sword. The new girl smiled.

"I've got your back," she promised. Wendy picked herself up off the floor, eyes narrowed in determination.

"Let's kick some butt," the Dragon Slayer said simply.

 **AN: And that's chapter four! Finally. Ugh. Sorry for taking so long, everyone, I got pretty distracted. I was going to end the chapter with Mira telling Gajeel and Elfman to hurry, but I've been waiting to bring Dimaria into the picture for** ** _ages_** **, so this happened. I apologize for Nikolai's four pages of exposition, but I really did need to get all that out there. Anyhow, Wendy and Carla have finally appeared, meaning the only member of Team Natsu yet to show up is Happy! He'll be here soon, I promise.**

 **About the OCs! Thus far, we've met Nikolai, Kagura, Aesir, Katsuya, Manami, and Mei, plus the fandom-specific OCs Siegrain and Caitlyn. Mai's been mentioned too, but she won't show up till later.**

 **Moving along, I need to clarify something – chapter 513 came out today. Yay! If you're expecting this story to adhere to any exposition we learned in it, too bad! I have absolutely no intention of going along with anything that happened today, and, as I said in the AN at the beginning of the chapter, this story deviates from canon at around chapter 499.**

 **Thanks for reading! Kitty out.**


	5. A Fatal Miscalculation

**AN: Time for chapter five! Woo! I got distracted for a bit, but I'm back! Anyway, thank you guys so much for reading and reviewing; it means so, so, so much to me. I love y'all. On with the story! Today you guys get to find out why my author's notes always try to get you to pay attention to that scene with Jet back in chapter two, because there's no way ignoring** ** _that_** **little paragraph could** ** _possibly_** **come back to bite you in the ass… OR COULD IT? Quick note – the narration will refer to the OC Kagura as "Togami", to keep things simple. The people who have known her for longer than they've known FT's Kagura will not necessarily do that same. I'll try to make it obvious as to which one they're talking about. Kitty out.**

Chapter Five: A Fatal Miscalculation

 _"Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die." –Carrie Fisher (RIP)_

"I'm such a fucking idiot," Gajeel growled, for what must've been the eighth time since they'd left. Usually, Elfman would've tried to cheer him up by telling him that he was still a man and it was okay to make mistakes or something, but he hadn't really been himself lately. He and his sisters had always relied on each other, although there'd been two years where it was just him and Mirajane, but now Mira was busying helping run the guild and Lisanna was in Alvarez and there was a voice in the back of his head that was cold and cruel and thought that maybe Evergreen was already dead. So he kept quiet and focused on running.

"We should be getting close to this Warrod guy," Pantherlily said, flying between them. He too felt guilty, although, unlike Gajeel, he hadn't been awake when Levy had left the guild the day before, Freed by her side. Jet had been, though, and his horrified reaction to learning that Lucy had left with someone who was currently with Levy still stuck in the back of all their minds.

There was a rustle in the bushes behind them, but it was ignored. Lucy, Evergreen, and Bickslow were in danger; there wasn't time to investigate what was probably just a startled bunny.

From the bushes, Manami Wakahisa grinned, licking her lips. Humans were always so _predictable_.

*Insert mildly amusing transition sequence here*

As he ran, Katsuya Gomi swore to every god he'd ever heard of that he was going to murder somebody.

"'Spy on these assholes', she says," he grumbled, voice high-pitched as he mocked an unknown person. "'It'll be easy', she says. Nobody's going to end up in life-threatening danger when their enemies are homicidal maniacs."

"I can hear you, Katsu-chan," the communicator he carried said. Katsuya glowered down at it.

"We're not eight anymore, Mai," he snapped. "When are you going to stop calling me that?" the person on the other end of the Magi-Com snorted.

"When it's a cold day in hell," she replied cheerfully. Katsuya heard a sigh. "Ok, I admit, I made a mistake. I forgot how clever Mei is. Usually, those other morons eclipse her genius with their idiocy, but she seems to have this planned out pretty well."

"Mai, someone could _die_ ," Katsuya snarled, irritation flashing over his face. "I don't have time to call for back up, and _someone_ didn't bring Akiko-chan. Could you at least pretend to care?" Mai was silent for a moment.

"I do care," she said finally. "You know that, Katsu-chan. But I'm not bringing my Ai-chan into this. Mika-mi is with that Saber Tooth guy right now, and Kagucchi is bringing Mikazuchi and the Etherious to help Heartfilia, but I can try to get in contact with Niko-Niko and Dragneel. Actually, Kagucchi's group is probably closer to you. I'll send Niko-Niko's team after Heartfilia."

"You'd sound so much more professional without the nicknames," Katsuya told her, rolling his eyes. He could practically _hear_ her mischievous grin.

"Where's the fun in that?" she asked. "I'm almost in Bosco. I'll get in touch with Crime Sorcière, and then–"

"What about Fernandes?" Katsuya interrupted. He slowed down as he neared his destination. Mai was silent for a bit.

"Let me worry about that," she said softly. "I'll get him out of there. Just keep Fairy Tail in the dark, yeah? You know how reckless they are. And that's coming from _me_." Katsuya smiled despite himself.

"Yeah," he agreed. "I'm about here. Any advice?"

"…Wait." Mai said. Katsuya stopped in his tracks, looking down at the Magi-Com. Mai's face peered back at him, her expression that of someone who was about to say something that they knew wouldn't be taken well.

"What?" Katsuya demanded. "Mai, I'm right _here_. That girl–"

"You're our only source on what Mei and the others are doing," Mai cut him off, unusually serious. "We can't lose that this early in the game, Katsu-chan. There's too much at stake." Katsuya stared at her.

"That girl could _die_ ," he said slowly. "And you're okay with that?" Mai flinched.

"Don't be like that, Katsu-chan," she pleaded. "I have no intentions of letting her _die_. I trust you. But we need to wait until he leaves. They don't trust you, Katsu-chan, and we can't give them a reason to try to kill you, because they _will_ and you know it."

"I'm glad you value my life so much," he said drily. "But Aesir–"

"Isn't the brightest person on the face of the planet," Mai interjected softly. "He'll fatally wound her, yes. But you hang out with _me_ ; I know you have some med-kits or something on you. Just keep her alive until you can get her someplace safe. Contact Fairy Tail, if you can. Just make sure–"

"Not to bring up Fernandes," Katsuya finished. "Got it."

"Or Agria," Mai added. "Lou has her right now. I can't do anything about that until I figure out how the hell he managed it. You'll need to wait until I get there for that, but make sure Fullbuster and Lockser don't go anywhere." Katsuya frowned.

"The Ice Devil Slayer and the Water Woman?" he asked. "What do they have to do with anything?" Mai face twisted into a grimace.

"Fullbuster seems to have a nasty habit of not letting sleeping dogs lie," she said grimly. "Or, in this case, not letting dead girls stay dead. Anyhow, I gotta–" she broke off, a surprised look crossing her face before being replaced with excitement.

"What's with that look?" Katsuya asked suspiciously.

"Bandits," Mai breathed gleefully. "They're gonna try and rob me or some shit like that. Gotta go, Katsu-chan. It's _ass-kicking_ time." Her face vanished as she tucked the Magi-Com away. Before it clicked off, he heard her bellow, "I came here to kick ass and spout bad one-liners! And I ain't runnin' out of either!" Katsuya rolled his eyes.

"I need new friends," he grumbled.

*Insert mildly amusing transition sequence here*

The runes weren't like any Levy had ever seen before. Granted, that wasn't necessarily new. In her younger days, she'd had a habit of finding ancient languages before actually figuring out _which_ languages they were. It had involved lots of trips to the library, walking back and forth between two places until somebody got dizzy from watching, and occasionally mugs of hot cocoa. She sighed at the memory. But then she'd had to grow up, realizing that operating in such a manner was inefficient and wasted a lot of time (except for the hot cocoa bit, of course). Now, she always tried to figure out which language she'd be looking at, and, failing that, bring all her books with her, just to be safe (because sometimes one language's character for "territorial dispute" was almost identical to another language's character for "fish sticks", and one was much less likely to have caused the extinction of an ancient civilization than the other; you just never knew).

"I don't recognize these at all," Freed murmured.

"They're not in any of my books," Levy agreed. "At least, not any of the ones I know particularly well." Grabbing her camera, she took several quick pictures of the crumbling walls ( _runes on ruins_ , her brain joked, and she made a mental note to never tell anyone but Lucy about that particular joke). "I suppose they might be in one of the newer ones, but just think! We might've stumbled upon a language no one's ever discovered before!" Freed chuckled softly.

"The odds of that happening are pretty low," he pointed out, amused. Levy grinned sheepishly.

"I know, but isn't the thought exciting? Even if they're just relatively unknown, it's a whole new language for me to learn!" she knelt down, tracing one of the runes with her index finger. She frowned. "It's strange, though. A lot of the characters look like one of the alphabets they had in Joya a few hundred years ago, but… then there's _this_ one." She tapped the rune, and Freed knelt to look at it. It was a straight line, with two diagonal lines extending from the top and middle of the first time to form a point. It looked almost like a flag. There were other variations of the same character, only turned at different angles so the point was facing different ways, but they seemed to be in completely random places. Each time Levy thought she'd spotted a pattern, she'd notice another flag-like rune that broke it. Granted, every language had its quirks, but…

"It's all quite strange," Freed murmured. "You're right about the similarities in the alphabet, but… these runes are clearly far too young to be from back then. Don't need an archeologist for that; they can't be more than a few decades old."

"Some of the characters obviously don't match," Levy noticed. Right next to a flag-shaped rune by her knee was a rune with far too many curves to be from the same language. "And… is it just me, or are these carved _really_ well?"

"Whoever wrote this either had exceptional handwriting or some sort of laser," Freed said, nodding. "Hand me your communications lacrima and I'll call someone at the guild and have them bring over a few more books." Levy blinked.

"Didn't you bring one?" she asked, confused. Freed blushed.

"I forgot," he admitted. Levy smiled at him, shaking her head. Freed rarely forgot things like that, but it was an understandable mistake. She dug into her pack, pulling out the crystal blue orb. Just as she was about to hand it to him, they heard a clicking noise.

"Booby trap!" Levy shrieked. Freed tackled her to the ground as whatever had been triggered sent something very small – and, most likely, very _lethal_ – over their heads. There was a rumbling sound as rocks from the ceiling of the cave came crashing down, blocking their exit. Once the rumbling had stopped, Levy felt Freed pull back, and, after a moment, a light appeared as he lit the emergency lantern.

"Oh no…" he whispered. Levy sat up, wincing slightly. He leg seemed to be trapped between two rocks, but it wasn't broken. She followed Freed's gaze.

The communications lacrima lay in hundreds of pieces on the floor, completely destroyed – along with any chance they had of calling for help.

*Insert mildly amusing transition sequence here*

Lucy stared around the destroyed Sun Village with dismay. She didn't even know where to start looking, or what she should even be looking for. Freed was crouched over by the ruins of a small cottage (small by giant standards, that is), and Ever and Bickslow were on the other side of the village.

Lucy glanced at the place where Atlas Flame's spirit had once burned as the Eternal Flame. He would've stopped whatever had done this, she thought to herself. But he hadn't been able to stop Gray's father from freezing the whole place over, so maybe not. A cough dragged her out of her thoughts.

"Lucy," Freed said. "Ever and Bickslow were supposed to check in five minutes ago. Perhaps they found something." Lucy straightened and nodded.

"Let's go check it out, then," she said, hoping her voice sounded stronger than it felt. As they walked, Lucy felt her face curve into a frown. She couldn't see either of them anywhere. And then– "Bickslow!" She rushed over to him, spotting Evergreen a few feet away. Both of them were unconscious, but alive. Freed drew his blade as he walked forward.

"Stay close to me," he warned. "Whoever did this can't be far off." Lucy glanced around, nervously. Fear suddenly gripped her – what if whatever had attacked Bickslow and Evergreen was also what had destroyed the village? It was more than likely. Just as Freed took another step forward, the bushes rustled. Freed spun around, bracing himself for an attack.

He wasn't disappointed. Gajeel shot straight towards him, body covered in his trademark iron armor. Freed barely managed to block Gajeel's Iron Dragon Sword with his own blade.

"What the–" he began, but Elfman burst from the shrubbery as well, already in Beast Soul form. He stood protectively in front of Lucy, growling. Pantherlily, in full battle mode, snatched up Evergreen and Bickslow's bodies, cradling them protectively in his arms. Lucy stared in shock.

"What are you doing?" she shrieked, horrified. "He's our friend!"

"No," Pantherlily snarled. "He isn't. That's not Freed, Lucy." Freed's wings appeared, and he pushed Gajeel away as he leapt back.

"Of course I'm Freed!" he snapped. "Who else would I be?"

"Freed's with Levy," Gajeel growled, picking himself up. "They left yesterday."

"I'm right here," Freed insisted. "I didn't go on any mission yesterday; we'd just gotten from our last job. I was too tired to take any new jobs."

"Tell that to the people who _watched them leave_ ," Elfman hissed. "If you're going to impersonate someone, try and attract a little less attention." Freed's jaw dropped.

"I'm not impersonating anyone!" he replied, frowning. "Do you honestly think Evergreen and Bickslow don't know their own teammate?" Gajeel's nose twitched.

"I think _Laxus_ knows what his own team smells like," the Iron Dragon Slayer retorted. "And he said _your_ scent ain't Freed's!"

"I took a shower before I left!" Freed protested. "I shouldn't have smelled _that_ different, but still!" Elfman raised his clawed fists.

"Drop the act," he roared. "No one impersonates a member of Fairy Tail and gets away with it!" As he and Gajeel lunged forward, Lucy spotted something out of the corner of her eye.

A blur of red and pink blazed forward – literally. The flames flickered and hissed between Freed and his attackers, and two shapes became visible in the middle of the blazing inferno. One was a girl Lucy didn't recognize, and the other–

"Long time no see, guys," a familiar voice called. "Not the reunion I was hoping for, but I'm always up for a good fight!" Lucy's jaw dropped and she felt warmth spread through her chest as she wiped the tears from her eyes.

"Natsu?" she whispered. Natsu Dragneel stepped from the slowly dying fire, grinning. Freed, Elfman, Gajeel, Pantherlily, and Lucy all stared in shock.

"Hey, Luce," he said, looking at her. "Sorry I took so long." Lucy shook her head, sniffling. She beamed through her tears.

"It's okay," she replied, barely managing to keep her voice steady. "You're here now." Natsu punched his fist into his palm.

"Hell yeah I am," he replied. The girl rolled her eyes.

"Have your touchin' reunion later," she growled. "We ain't outta the woods just yet." Gajeel shook himself out of his stupor.

"Look, flame-breath, that guy ain't Freed," he snarled. "He was about to stab Bunny-girl." Natsu glanced back at Freed.

"No, that's Freed," he said simply. The red-haired girl nodded.

"The other one is the fake," she said nonchalantly. "I got a friend who's been keepin' tabs on this shit. Y'all got played." Gajeel stared at her for a moment.

"Levy…" he breathed, horrified. He turned to run, but the redhead caught his arm.

"There's already a group on their way to get her," she told him. "Couple o' my pals, plus some Mikazuchi chick and a dog boy or some shit. 'S too far away for you to do shit, so let 'em handle it. We got our own problems to deal with."

"Who the fuck are you?" Gajeel demanded, furiously.

"Name's Nikolai Sutra," Nikolai said. "I'm the bitch who dragged your friend's isolated bum back here." She scowled. "This was supposed to be the midget's job. Damn crazy fucker changin' shit up on me…" Lucy shook her head to clear it, rising to her feet.

"You're sure these friend of yours can help Levy?" she asked. Nikolai shrugged.

"Only know two of 'em," she replied. "But you know the other two, so you tell me. Mikazuchi and some dog boy, like I said." Lucy frowned.

"'Dog boy'?" she repeated. "Do you mean Toby?" Nikolai shook her head.

"Nah, his name started with a 'J'. Jackalope or some shit like that." She shrugged again. "Used to be your enemy, I heard, but you don't gotta worry 'bout that. The midget's more 'n strong enough to keep him under control."

"Jackal?" Lucy asked, incredulous. Nikolai nodded.

"That's the one," she said, rubbing the back of her neck. "Yeah, Katsuya saved his ass or somethin', so now he's gotta help the shrimp out or whatever. Dunno. Anyway, it'll work out fine. Katsuya's there; he knows how to keep his shit together. If your friend's still alive, she'll be fine. If not, there's nothin' you could've done anyway. So just pretend everything's fuckin' peachy so we can get this done and head back."

"Get what done, exactly?" Freed asked, still eyeing Gajeel warily.

"Figurin' out what did this," Nikolai said, as though it was obvious. "I heard 'massacre', so I thought it might've been Manami, and I definitely saw her earlier, but this ain't her handywork."

"How can you tell?" Elfman asked. Nikolai's nose crinkled in disgust.

"Manami's carnivorous," she responded. "Eats meat and nothin' else. Also happens to have a bottomless pit for a stomach, and that's not really an exaggeration. We got way too many bodies here for her to have been involved." Lucy blanched.

"Are you saying she would've _eaten_ them?" the Celestial Spirit Mage asked, horrified. Nikolai ran a hand through her hair.

"Actually, she ain't some sorta super eater, so she'd probably still be here," she mused to herself. "But yeah, she'd eat 'em. She'd eat you too, come to that. Unless you're broccoli or somethin'; then you're safe." Pantherlily frowned.

"This is hardly the time for jokes," he pointed out. Nikolai rolled her eyes.

"'Scuse me for tryin' t' break the ice," she grumbled. She crouched down to examine one of the bodies. "Too much blood to be Mei… not enough 'accidents' for Aesir… Chao-Ahn woulda stuck around to mock us… looks like it happened too quickly to be Jalil…" Nikolai ran through old enemies in her head. "Mirrolette doesn't do her own dirty work… pretty sure Su-Yin's dead…" she picked up a white feather, inspecting it closely. After a moment, she took a deep breath and blew on the feather. The white dust coating was blown off, revealing a dull black. "And we got our man."

"A feather?" Natsu asked, perplexed. Nikolai shook her head.

"Callin' card," she said grimly. "Guy by the name of Lou Zhebub. Fake name, obviously, but human vocal cords can't pronounce his real one. Not a very subtle joke, though." She stood up. "Lou is what's called a Halfling – half human and half angel, in this case. Unfortunately for us, humans are corrupt as fuck and angels don't handle corruption well. In other words, he's batshit insane. I only know one other half angel, and she's half demon too. She's the midget's half-brother's girlfriend. Sometimes. Sometimes, she's the midget's half-brother's boyfriend. Or whatever. I dunno."

"How can you be half demon and half angel?" Elfman wondered, thinking of his elder sister.

"Uncomfortably," Nikolai told him. "Anyhow, that ain't important now. We need to figure out why the hell Lou decided to go on a murder spree."

"I thought you said he was crazy," Pantherlily pointed out. "Seems like that'd be enough of a reason."

"Sure, it could be." Nikolai agreed. "'Cept he'd have to be real fuckin' stupid to draw this much attention to himself when Mai's anywhere nearby. He's a fucking nutjob, but he ain't a dumbass."

"Mai's your friend who's super strong, right?" Natsu asked. "What's she got to do with it? When she called us, she said she was in Bosco." Nikolai grimaced.

"Lou's got a… thing for girls with long, light-colored hair," she confessed. "Went after my brother's girl once. We kicked his ass no problem, but then he went after a friend of ours; girl by the name of Akiko Shindou." The redhead hesitated for a bit. "Mai's always been a bit protective of her friends," she said quietly. "But hurtin' Shindou is a death sentence, as far as she's concerned. She sees him, she'll kill him."

"So that's why you didn't want her to be our contact," Natsu realized.

"Part of it, yeah," Nikolai nodded. "Mai's a nice person, but 'nice' and 'good' ain't synonyms. She decides you're her friend, then you don't gotta worry, but hurtin' Shindou is a one-way ticket to a slow and painful, albeit creative, death. I mentioned a guy named Su-Yin earlier, when I was mutterin' to myself, yeah? He used Shindou as bait to get one of my friends to fight him. The rest of us got over it, but Mai doesn't take chances when it comes to Shindou's safety. Officially, he's been labeled a 'missing person', but…" she paused. "Don't take a genius to figure out that's he's six feet under."

"Yikes," Lucy grimaced. Nikolai gave her a wry grin.

"Don't tell her I told you," she added. "She's a good friend to have; just a bit extreme. 'Sides, I heard you and your pals rush into death traps all the time." Lucy blushed. It wasn't _un_ true…

"This Lou guy," Elfman cut in. "Is he the one that attacked Evergreen? And Bickslow," he added, cheeks reddening. Nikolai glanced at the two unconscious mages.

"Mighta been," she conceded. "Mighta been a booby trap, though. But again, Lou ain't dumb enough to call this much attention to himself when he knows I got Mai on speed dial. Either he's got somethin' he thinks she wants, or he's just a diversion. And if _that's_ the case, then–" Nikolai spun around, arm dissolving into flames as something leapt out from the trees at her. The orange-haired girl hissed in pain as the fire licked at her skin, but the burn healed in a moment. She looked up at them, grinning with a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth.

"What the fu–" Gajeel began. Nikolai sneered at the newcomer.

"Hello, Manami," she spat. Manami's grin widened.

"Hello, _dinner_."

 **AN: And that's the chapter! Holy shit, I wrote all of this in one day? Who even** ** _am_** **I right now? Well, anyways, Mai's been introduced (sort of), but she's not showing up in person for a bit. And to everyone who thought Lou was a bad guy – congrats. You win the** ** _No Fucking Shit_** **award. Just kidding. XD Anyway, for anyone wondering, I never planned to actually have Togami's group go to the Sun Village. I just needed to make it apparent that Mai isn't all knowing and had no idea that the Freed thing was going to happen. To clarify, Mai isn't some sort of mastermind. She just happens to be the one who knows where everyone is at the moment. The Freed thing was something I had planned from the very beginning (and also happens to be the only reason Freed didn't die in the war alongside Cana).**

 **Also – Nikolai is just speculating. She can't be fully aware of what her enemies are going to do either, nor is she one hundred percent sure who's involved. Did Lou kill the giants? Yes. Is Nikolai correct about his motives? Who knows? But… I'm curious as to how many of you were caught off-guard by Nikolai's little story about Mai. I initially hadn't intended to reveal so much about Mai so early, but I recently decided that I don't actually want to try and drag this thing out for sixty chapters, so I had to do some reorganizing. Sorry if it feels a bit rushed.**

 **Lastly, I'm gonna have to ask you guys not to ask me about ships. This story isn't about ships. Natsu's been gone for over a year, he left without saying anything (again), and Lucy's been having her own problems. Jellal is being tortured, Erza thinks he's dead, and they're miles and miles apart. Gray and Juvia have some shit to deal with, and, as Mai mentioned, they've got more problems than they're aware of. Gajeel is working on the Sun Village mystery, and Levy is trapped in a cave with the fake Freed. None of these people are in a good position to be shtupping right now. The only ships we've seen so far are the plot relevant ones (like Droy and Araña, which was set up so Jet could have his own little paragraph where he complains about being alone because Droy's got a girlfriend and Levy's off on missions with Gajeel and Lily all the time, which led to the reveal that Levy was currently on a mission with 'Freed') and the ones that are already canon (Alzack and Bisca, Jenny and Hibiki, Sherry and Ren, etc.)**

 **TLDR – ships don't matter. Don't bother asking.**

 **Thanks so much for reading, please review, and see you next time! Kitty out.**


	6. Inmanitas

**AN: Not gonna lie – I initially planned to keep Mai out of the story for as long as possible because people don't like OCs (and because there's a** ** _lot_** **I have to explain about her), but the overwhelmingly positive reactions to her character convinced me to have her cameo in chapter five before bringing her in for her actual debut much earlier than planned. Plus, I haven't brought CS into the picture since chapter two, and even then it was only half of them. I don't have much else to say right now, so sit back, enjoy the story, and please let me know what you thought! Kitty out.**

Chapter Six: Inmanitas

 _"Character is what you are in the dark." –Dwight L. Moody_

The word "monster" had several different meanings. It can refer to an imaginary creature that is, typically, large, ugly, and all around terrifying. It can refer to an extraordinarily naughty child. It can refer to something – a person, animal, or thing – that happens to be larger than average. It can refer to something that is malformed or mutated in some way. In some places, the word even became a verb – a synonym for scolding.

But there was another definition, used rather commonly, that instead meant an inhumanly cruel or wicked person. This definition was one that Mai Wakaba thought about quite a bit.

Was she a monster? She'd asked herself the question as a child, back when "different" had been synonymous with "bad" and the biggest sin a person could commit was not sharing crayons. Ultimately, she'd concluded that she wasn't, because she didn't find the idea of hurting another living being appealing. Not that it was _un_ appealing, of course – simply that she didn't think she'd derive much pleasure from thrusting a knife into someone's gut.

In later life, she'd come to realize that the word "monster" couldn't really apply to _anyone_ , in the sense she was thinking, because there were just too many different kinds of people. Everyone was raised differently, different cultures had different beliefs, and no two people were the same. What was the difference between "right" and "wrong"? Was there a difference to begin with? Did it even really matter?

As she'd grown, Mai had decided that no, it really didn't. There was just too much variety in the world for any sort of universal moral code, and each moral code invalidated another, so there was no point in trying to combine all of them into one. When teachers had said things like "always be yourself", Mai had wondered if that applied to everyone or only the people the teachers wanted it to apply to. Would you say something like that to a serial killer? Probably not, she'd decided. So, really, it was more like "always be yourself unless someone else told you not to", and what sense did that make?

So who was she supposed to be? Was she supposed to just sort of grow into herself? How did that work? It didn't seem there was any logical way to do that, so Mai had decided to _create_ herself instead. Rather than ask herself questions like "what do I want to be when I grow up", Mai had asked herself things like "what boxes do I have to tick off to become a person". That was how it worked, wasn't it? As she'd read her books, she'd picked up similarities between two stories that otherwise had nothing in common; which tropes was she to choose to "create" herself?

There was the hero, who always won in the end, which was boring. If she knew she'd always win, there'd be no point in a struggle. There was the damsel in distress, who sat on the sidelines waiting for the hero. That was boring too. _If I ever get kidnapped_ , Mai said to herself, _I'm going to make it interesting. I'll usurp the villain or rescue myself or just make my own side_. There was nothing to be gained from sitting around and waiting for something to happen. There was the villain, who caused the problem but always lost in the end, and that was even _more_ pointless. Why bother doing something if you weren't going to succeed? There were other character types too, but none of them _worked_ , not the way Mai wanted them to.

 _There's no place in a story for someone who doesn't fit into a box_ , she'd realized, and then she'd decided that she wasn't going to fit into _any_ box, because none of them were interesting and she had no intentions of allowing anyone else to write her character.

And so she'd decided to become the type of character an author wouldn't know what to do with; the type that had no clear motivation or goals or history or any reason to be anywhere aside from the fact that they simply were. Later on, she'd learned about sexuality and gender and romantic orientation and all that and she'd decided that those boxes weren't important to her either. Some guys were okay-looking and there were lots of pretty girls that she fantasized about, but none of the fantasies ever went _there_ , to the place where most teenage fantasies ended up, so she'd abandoned the thought altogether, deciding that sex was of no interest to her. Romance was much the same – you could go on dates with your friends, couldn't you? Why add any drama? And then there was gender, which only became a factor after she'd learned that it wasn't quite so cut-and-dry as to where your pee came out.

She'd been a girl her whole life because that was just how it was, but she knew for a fact that she wasn't a boy. Still, did not being a boy equate to being a girl? Not really, in her mind. She decided not to care about that either, in the end. People could use whatever pronouns they wanted to for her; it really didn't matter.

And then, several years after she'd first thought of it, the question about whether or not she was a monster came around again. It had nothing to do with gender or any of that. Rather, it occurred right after Su-Yin had gone "missing" and Katsuya had dropped by her room for seemingly no reason other to give her an annoyed look.

Officially, he was missing. Still, she'd be surprised if even one of her friends didn't suspect her of being involved. He'd targeted Akiko, after all, and everyone knew how overprotective Mai was when it came to _her_ (it wouldn't be inaccurate to say that Mai was in love with Akiko, but she'd made it very clear that she didn't want their relationship to go beyond friendship. "Akiko was straight," she'd said. "I love her for everything about her. If that includes heterosexuality, then that's that." So there was that, but there was also the thrill Mai got from simply being around her precious "Ai-chan" that she didn't think would still be there if they _did_ end up together).

And yes, she'd killed Su-Yin. It had been slow and painful and he had died pleading (for death, for forgiveness, for the pain to _stop_ ). She hadn't regretted it, but she wasn't entirely sure she'd _enjoyed_ it either. There had been a sense of satisfaction she'd derived from watching him die, but she didn't think she would've appreciated it nearly as much if he hadn't hurt Akiko. But the fact remained that she'd killed a man, and most moral codes (along with most _legal systems_ ) were pretty clear about that being a Bad Thing to do. Mai didn't have a moral code of her own, of course, but she knew that murder was frowned upon and she'd probably get in trouble, so she'd disposed of the body and any evidence. She'd done a pretty good job, although she was never quite certain if the lack of investigation came from the lack of evidence from the crime or the lack of _confidence_ the authorities had in dealing with any potential suspects.

Did killing Su-Yin make her a monster? She'd asked herself the question, less out of concern for her own actions and more out of a detached curiosity, but she hadn't been able to come to a conclusion. It wasn't like she'd done it because murder was fun, but that didn't change the fact that a man was dead and it had been fun, sort of, to watch him die.

She pondered the thought as she fought the bandits, not giving them nearly as much attention as they probably thought they deserved. In all fairness, they weren't really much of a challenge for her. Not that many people _were_ , of course, but Mai knew how stories worked and random obstacles never really interfered with the actual plot (whether or not Mai actually believed she was in a story was anyone's guess, but it was very possible that she did. Still, she likely didn't see herself as the protagonist, so perhaps she would've paid more attention to a more serious threat).

It was over before she knew it, and she sighed unhappily. Fighting was– well, it wasn't particularly fun, but it was certainly both a way to pass the time and a good outlet for pent-up stress. Plopping down on one of the unconscious bodies (not dead, because there was no real reason for her to kill them), Mai looked up at the sky and wished she had a lollipop.

She didn't particularly _like_ lollipops, but she felt that it would certainly fit the scene she was in.

*Insert mildly amusing transition sequence here*

The cave seemed a lot smaller than it had before the cave-in. Whether this was because there was actually less space from the rock fall or simply that Levy was scared shitless was uncertain, but it _felt_ smaller. Levy had never thought of herself as particularly claustrophobic before, but this was extremely uncomfortable regardless.

"Freed?" she whispered. "Is my leg broken?"

"I can't tell," Freed said, sounding worried. "If it is, the break is underneath the rocks. There's not enough room for any magic." He looked like he was trying very hard not to panic, so Levy sent him what she hoped was a calming smile and not a terrified grimace. "This is all my fault," Freed moaned. "If only I hadn't forgotten my–"

"It's not your fault," Levy cut in sternly. He looked down at her and smiled. In the dim light of the lantern, his smile came off as rather threatening.

"Actually," he said softly. "It is." And then he broke the lantern, plunging both of them into darkness.

*Insert mildly amusing transition sequence here*

"Finding a pile of unconscious bodies wasn't exactly on our to-do list today," said Macbeth drily. The only _not_ unconscious person at the scene laughed nervously.

"Well, I might've gone a bit overboard," she admitted. "In all fairness, they were bandits." Erik gave a nod of assent.

"She's tellin' the truth," he grunted. The girl turned to look at him. She had pink hair (not the same shade as Merudy's, and definitely not natural – there were brown roots showing), violet eyes, and seemed rather fidgety. There was something not quite right about the thoughts Erik was hearing, but she wasn't lying. It was almost like something was filtering what she was thinking – or, at least, which thoughts he heard. She seemed to be the type of person who thought about a thousand things at once, but Erik could only hear a few of them. Honest or not, that was a pretty big warning sign right there.

"Are you alright?" Richard asked kindly. She nodded cheerfully, and he beamed at her. If he shared Erik's suspicion, he didn't show it.

"Do you know who we are?" Macbeth asked. She grinned at him.

"Crime Sorcière. One half, anyway – the other half is on the way." Her tongue flicked across her lips. If she planned on saying something else, she didn't get the chance.

"Mind explaining how you know that?" Erik growled, tensed for a fight. She raised her hands in front of her quickly.

"Easy there, Mr. Poison Dragon Slayer," she said quickly. "I didn't come here to pick a fight. I'm on your side. Well," she thought about it for a moment. "I guess I'm not _exactly_ on your side, but that's mostly because I don't like taking sides. At least, not officially – I like to be the mysterious stranger type, y'know? Like in the fairy tales, where there's a little old lady on the side of the road who knows something about something and helps the hero save the day? Like that, except not really."

"Who the fuck are you?" Erik demanded.

"Mai Wakaba," she introduced herself with a bow. Well, she tried to, but it seemed that she'd forgotten she was sitting down, so she just sort of rolled over. "And you guys," she said, getting to her feet, "are Macbeth, Richard, and Erik of Crime Sorcière, formerly known as Midnight, Hoteye, and Cobra of the Oración Seis. Your guild is run by Jellal Fernandes, and he got you to join by beating the ever-loving fuck out of you." Macbeth's eyes narrowed.

"Jellal is dead," he told her coolly. She blinked, and then smiled.

"My mistake," she said smoothly. "I'm assuming you've heard of your comrade's current MIA status? Sorano Agria, I believe."

"Do you know where Sorano is?" Richard asked. His voice and tone were calm, but something about his posture warned that he was absolutely ready for a fight.

"I already said I wasn't here to fight," Mai reminded him. "And no, I don't. You're meeting up with the rest of your guild to head back to Fiore, aren't you? If that's your plan, I'll tell you now you won't find her." Erik lunged forward, grabbing her by the neck and lifting her into the air. She looked down at him, unfazed.

"Where is she?" he snarled. Mai rolled her eyes.

"I already said I didn't know," she snapped. "Put me down before I break your arm. I actually need air to breathe, you know." Erik took a deep breath himself before relaxing his hand and letting her fall to the ground. She landed with all the grace of a legless cat, grumbling and rubbing her behind as she climbed to her feet once more.

"If you have information that would help us locate her, it would be greatly appreciated," Richard said, tugging Erik back. "But I think we'd appreciate an explanation as to why you're willing to help."

"Let's just say I owe the fucker who took her some pain," Mai explained, looking over the three of them. "Unfortunately, I have other things I need to do. As much as I'd love to play the knight in shining armor to a cute girl and as much as I'd like to introduce a certain someone's kidneys to his eye sockets, there are some things that take precedence." Macbeth sighed.

"So you're using us," he said bluntly. Mai shrugged.

"If you wanna look at it that way," she said flippantly. "You could call this a mutually beneficial arrangement, if you want, but whatever works for you." She turned to look directly at Erik. "I can't tell you where she is, since I don't actually know, but I _can_ tell you where and how to start looking. I just need you to promise me something."

"What, beat the shit out of this guy?" Erik asked, grinning. "We're good at that, don't worry." Mai shook head.

"I'm fully confidant in your ability to give him his just desserts," she assured them. "No, I need you to promise that you won't kill anyone else."

"Why?" Macbeth asked suspiciously. "Is there someone else involved?" Mai shifted uncomfortably.

"Well," she said slowly, "that's a bit complicated. See… he probably deserves a good ass kicking, but –" she looked up to give them all a hard look. "I'd advise against actually murdering him. For starters, you'll need his help."

"Why would we need help from someone we'd want to kill?" Macbeth inquired.

"Because this is arguably his fault," Mai rubbed her temples. "That said, you literally can't find her without him, and she'll die if he does." She looked up. "To be fair, it's not like angels tell normal people about their contracts, but still. He accidentally bonded his soul to hers. It's doesn't mean they're in love or something dumb like that, but it does mean their lives are connected – along with anyone else he's tied his soul to. In most cases, that's fine. Annoying to the angels, but there are loopholes that make it acceptable. Unfortunately, this guy seems unable to grasp the concept of 'death', so the loophole was voided when he actually _did_ break a rule, and now a certain asshole is taking advantage of it." Mai crossed her arms, scowling. "The guy who took your friend is named Lou. The idiot who _let_ him is named Gray Fullbuster, and someone needs to tell him that there are rules that you _just don't break_."

 **AN: And that's a wrap! It's a little shorter than the last one, but I'm on a plane and will continue to be on said plane for another eight-ish hours. This chapter was almost entirely about Mai, so I hope you enjoyed it!**

 **Anyway, this chapter is titled "Inmanitas", which is Latin. It can translate to "brutality", "savage character", "frightfulness", "huge/vast size", "barbarity", or "monster". Which translation I was thinking of is for my head only, mostly because I want you guys to interpret it.**

 **Right! So, who saw this twist coming? This, along with the Freed thing, was one of the very early scenes I thought of for this story, so I hope it didn't come out of nowhere.**

 **On canon – I'm not bringing Irene's canon backstory into this. Irene herself won't be an important character (assuming she shows up at all), so it shouldn't be too big a deal. That said, I refuse to acknowledge that ridiculously blatant, poorly handled, half-assed attempt to drag Erza into the whole mess with the dragons. I refuse to believe that anyone as completely moronic as Erza's dad could have possibly been a high-ranking military official. I refuse to bring any bit of that complete pile of bullcrap into my story. It's not happening. Ever.**

 **That aside, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! I know people were hoping to see Manami fighting the gang in the Sun Village or Dimaria's tag team battle with Wendy, and I promise that'll happen very soon (at least one of those things will be in the next chapter, I swear), but Mai takes up a** ** _lot_** **of space. Hence why I wanted to wait before I brought her in. She's a bit of an attention whore, isn't she?**

 **There's so much going on right now, and so many people we still haven't seen (Happy, Rogue, Jaren, about half the Spriggan 12, etc.), and the characters we** ** _have_** **seen are either in some serious shit, causing some serious shit, or a mixture of the two. Plus I need to figure out how and when to explain what's going on with the Fernandes family, because that is Important with a capital I. Bleh.**

 **All that stuff aside, thank you all so much for reading and reviewing! I appreciate your support way more than I could ever properly convey. You guys are absolutely wonderful and I love you all so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so much. Thank you so much for everything, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, please let me know what you thought, and I'll see you next time! Kitty out.**


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